What DNS provider is the best

Grok 4.20

Vote: NextDNS

NextDNS stands out for its extensive customization options, including granular blocklists, parental controls, and detailed analytics that the others lack. It balances strong privacy (no logs, encrypted DNS) with security features like malware blocking, making it more versatile than Quad9's security focus or Mullvad's simpler VPN-tied approach. Libredns is open-source and free but offers fewer features and less reliability for everyday users. Overall, NextDNS delivers the best all-around experience for most people prioritizing control and protection.

GPT-5.4

Vote: Quad9

Quad9 is the strongest all-around choice for most users because it combines strong security filtering, broad anycast performance, and a privacy-focused policy without requiring an account. Its main advantage is mature threat blocking backed by multiple intelligence sources. If the question is simply "best" rather than "most customizable," dependable malware/phishing protection matters a lot. Quad9 also has a long-standing nonprofit, public-interest positioning and a good reputation for minimizing retained personal data. That gives it a stronger trust profile than many DNS services. NextDNS is excellent and more configurable, but its account-based customization and business model make it slightly less straightforward as a default recommendation. Mullvad DNS is privacy-friendly, but less established as a broad default pick. LibreDNS is more niche and less proven at Quad9’s scale. So if choosing one provider as the best general recommendation, Quad9 is the most balanced answer.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Vote: Quad9

Quad9 stands out as the best overall DNS provider because it perfectly balances privacy, security, and performance out of the box. As a non-profit organization headquartered in Switzerland, it operates under some of the strictest privacy laws in the world and has a legally binding commitment to never collect, track, or sell user data. On the security front, Quad9 provides exceptional, built-in protection by blocking known malicious domains, phishing sites, and malware hosts. It aggregates threat intelligence from dozens of top-tier cybersecurity companies to constantly update its blocklists without requiring user configuration. Furthermore, Quad9 operates a massive global anycast network, ensuring incredibly fast resolution times and high reliability no matter where you are located. It offers all of this for free, making it an unbeatable choice for anyone looking to enhance their internet security and privacy with zero hassle.

Claude Opus 4.6

Vote: NextDNS

NextDNS stands out as the best overall DNS provider among these options for several compelling reasons. First, NextDNS offers unparalleled customization. Users can configure custom blocklists, allowlists, and filtering rules on a per-device or per-profile basis. This level of granularity is not matched by Quad9, Mullvad DNS, or LibreDNS, which offer more of a one-size-fits-all approach. Second, NextDNS supports all modern encrypted DNS protocols — DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-TLS, and DNS-over-QUIC — and provides native apps across all major platforms, making setup trivially easy. It also integrates seamlessly with routers and has excellent documentation. Third, NextDNS provides detailed analytics and logging (which can be fully disabled for privacy-conscious users), giving users visibility into their DNS queries. This is incredibly useful for identifying threats, tracking ad domains, and debugging network issues. Fourth, from a privacy standpoint, NextDNS has a clear and transparent privacy policy. While Mullvad DNS and Quad9 also have strong privacy credentials, NextDNS gives users the *choice* of how much logging they want — from full logs to zero logs — rather than making that decision for them. Quad9 is an excellent runner-up with strong threat intelligence and a nonprofit structure, and Mullvad DNS is great if you're already in the Mullvad ecosystem. LibreDNS is a solid community option but lacks the feature depth and global infrastructure of the others. Overall, NextDNS offers the best combination of privacy, customization, performance, and ease of use.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable reached a perfect deadlock, splitting down the middle between the power of customization and the elegance of 'set-it-and-forget-it' security. Claude Opus 4.6 and Grok 4.20 championed NextDNS as the superior choice for users who demand granular control, while GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1 Pro argued that Quad9’s nonprofit status and zero-configuration safety make it the better universal recommendation.

No agreement after 1 rounds of discussion. Final vote: NextDNS: 2, Quad9: 2

Strongest Arguments

• NextDNS: NextDNS offers unparalleled granularity, allowing users to choose their own logging levels and custom blocklists on a per-device basis—a level of control that competitors simply cannot match.
• Quad9: Quad9 provides enterprise-grade threat intelligence and Swiss-based privacy protections out of the box, offering a high-security, no-account-required experience that is more accessible than account-based alternatives.